disco tornadoes

We had a super busy but incredibly fun whirlwind of a weekend. I'm sad that it's over! On Saturday we went to visit Jon's family. The twins and I went shopping for holiday outfits with his mom while Jon and his dad went to run errands and visit with his grandma. Afterwards, we all had an excellent dinner and headed home exhausted.

Sunday morning we were up bright and early to get ready for brunch followed by dancing at Baby Loves Disco. The wait at the place where we had originally intended to eat was prohibitively long, so we ended up dining at a delicious little Guatemalan restaurant (fried plantains=Yum!)

Several families from the IEKC met at the Metro and had a fantastic night shaking and shimmying to all of our favourite disco tunes. It was a lot of fun, although it quickly became overwhelming with all the people, loud music, bubbles, scarves, toys, food, etc... We had a great turnout, but it was difficult to socialize with toddlers running amok. Unfortunately I didn't get to take a ton of pictures because I was constantly chasing a baby...

Izzie got glammed up with sparkles in her hair, a yellow clip-on braid, a glittery star on her cheek, and some bling in the form of a ring. Elijah got an uber cool purple fauxhawk.

Every once in a while, the twins would stop to bust a move, but for the most part, they just wanted to run around the dance floor. Little miss independence has a penchant for wandering off, and being so small, she can get into places that the rest of us cannot. That made for a couple of close calls when people failed to notice little Izzie in the dark dance club. Luckily she's a hearty girl, and just brushes herself off and keeps on going. Elijah desperately wanted try his hand behind the bar, but we were able to successfully redirect him towards the lemonade and water.

After the dance party, we took a detour to explore Graceland Cemetery, where everyone who's anyone in Chicago history is buried. It's an absolutely gorgeous cemetery with monuments as unique as the personalities they commemorate. Jon and I spent an hour and a half driving through the cemetery while the twins slept in the back seat. We even happened to see a fox wandering between the graves.

We were able to find the graves of Allan Pinkerton (the original private eye and founder of the U.S. Secret Service), Marshall Field (of department store fame. I shall *never* spend my money at Macy's), Potter and Bertha Palmer (king and queen of Chicago high society), and the controversial George Pullman, who was so deeply despised at the time of his death, that he was buried in a leaded coffin covered with tarpaper and asphalt, reinforced with railroad ties, and housed within 20 feet of concrete. Although the popular belief is that these precautions were taken to ensure that nobody would be able to desecrate Pullman's grave, Ambrose Bierce once said "It is clear the family in their bereavement was making sure the sonofabitch wasn't going to get up and come back."

Also buried at Graceland Cemetery are acclaimed modern architect Mies van der Rohe; hotelier Dexter Graves who brought the first colony of 13 families to Chicago from Ohio in 1831; Baseball National League founder William Hulbert; newspaper publisher Victor Lawson (whose name does not appear on his monument "because in his era, the ideal journalist was an anonymous seeker of truth"); and 6 year old Inez Clarke whose spirit is said to haunt Graceland to this day.

I've always had an odd fascination with cemeteries, and Graceland is among the creme de la creme, especially when it comes to Chicago History. Clearly as the important people that we are, Jon and I shall insist upon an ornate burial site within Graceland's hallowed walls. Better start looking for someone who designs sarcophagi and monuments...